Uropi is an International Auxiliary language created by Joel Landais. It is a synthesis of all the common points that can be found in Indo-European languages. Its main characteristics are simplicity, internationality and transparency

Poly-translation ensures that the outcome is more international, more simple and logical.

It is no longer a question of translating from one language to another, but rather of comparing various translations, in several languages, of the same word, of the same sentence, of the same text.

This method has been used to create Uropi and make it a common, international language.

Let us take, for example, the French expression: j'ai faim / soif, in German: ich habe Hunger / Durst, Italian ho fame / sete, Spanish tengo hambre / sed, Dutch ik heb honger / dorst…etc., This is a relatively international phrase, but it does not seem very logical to have the same verb to have (meaning to possess)for a sensation like hunger as for any object we own (I have a book, I have a car).

English uses the verb to be with an adjective: I'm hungry, just like Russian: я - голоден (except that Russian does not use the copula (am) in the present tense), Danish: jeg er sulten, Swedish: jag är hungrig, Serbian and Croatian: gladan sam, Polish: jestem głodny. It seems indeed more logical to use the verbe to be with what you feel and do not own, like sensations, feelings: I'm cold, I'm warm, just as you say I'm happy, I'm sad, in French: Je suis heureux, je suis triste.

Some languages make things much more complicated, like Hindi: मुझे भूख लगी है (mujhe bhūkh lagī hai) that is something like: "to me hunger has begun". Others, on the contrary, will simplify even further, using a single verb for to be hungry, to be thirsty, like modern Greek for example: I'm hungry =πεινώ (pinô)*, I'm thirsty = διψώ (dipsô)

*(It should not be confused with πίνω (pìnô) stressed on the first syllabe = I drink).

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This is also the case in Mandarin with 我饿了Wǒ èle, where 了(le) is the past marker; we can also say: 我饿 Wǒ è = I'm hungry; 饿 (è) is both the verb be hungry and the noun hunger.

Why not opt for this ? It is undoubtedly the simplest solution and has been adopted in Uropi as well; with fam and sist* (hunger and thirst), we have the verbs famo and sisto >i fam, i sist= I'm hungry, I'm thirsty. You can also find it with the verb frajo (to be afraid, frightened, to fear), from fraj (fear), thus i fraj = I'm afraid. Here Greek makes things more complicated as it uses a mediopassive: φοβάμαι "fovamai" (lit. I fear myself); this is also the case in Russian with бояться "bayat'sia" (to fear oneself) hence: я боюсь "ya bayoos'" = I'm afraid ("I fear myself"). On the other hand Lithuanian, like Uropi, has a single verb: bijoti > bijau = i fraj(I'm afraid).

(* From Latin sitis = thirst, influenced by English thirst and Greek dipsa).

As a second choice we have the possibility in Uropi to use to be + adjective as in English: i se fami, i se sisti(I'm hungry, I'm thirsty), which we also find in phrases like: i se frij, i se varmi, i se caj = I'm cold, I'm warm, I'm hot, whereas Russian uses a personalpronoun in the dative: мне холодно, мне тепло, мне жарко (to me cold, to me warm, to me hot), and Romance languages use the verb to have again: j'ai froid, ho freddo, tengo frio.

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Poly-translation is particularly useful to solve translation problems which may seem insoluble at first: all languages are faced with the same problems to express an idea, but they follow different paths to to solve them and some of these solutions may be more simple and logical than others.

For a common international language, poly-translation guarantees its international character and thus is essential. It prevents the translator from being too influenced by the source-language, because for every translation unit, it offers us multiple solutions which help us make a decision, favouring a greater simplicity and logic, which is not necessarily the case in the source-language. Thus, by translating original texts chosen from various languages, poly-translation prevents Uropi from becoming the clone of such and such natural language, and enable us in all situations to preserve, an international point of view.

Examples

The Little Mermaid

(Andersen's tale, translated from Danish, with English and French translations .

Extracts from the beginning of the tale when the little Mermaid sees the young prince on his ship and witnesses the sinking)

"… men den smukkeste var dog den unge Prinds…" (but the most beautiful was indeed the young prince); in English "Among them was a young prince, the most beautiful of all"; here Uropi follows French: "Pur de beles od tale sì u jun Prins"(Le plus beau d’entre eux était un jeune prince).

"… saa den lille Havfrue blev ganske forskrækket …"; Uropi follows Danish:: "simte de miki Marʒika vidì mol afrajen" (so that the Little Mermaid was very frightened); as in Danish, in Uropi the passive is formed with "to become": "blev" = "vidì" (became). English is farther away: "was so startled", and French is under-translated: "eut peur"(was afraid).

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"… og dukkede ned under Vandet…". Here Uropi follows English which expresses it very simply"dived under water""dupì ude vod", whereas French is farther away: "s’enfonça dans l’eau"(sunk into the water).

"… Aldrig havde hun seet saadanne Ildkunster…"; Uropi once more follows Danish: (Lit. never had she seen such fireworks): "Nevos ce avì vizen sule artifoje", without the subject-verb inversion however ("havde hun = had she"), as in French:: "Jamais elle n’avait vu"(never she had seen). English is not much different: "she had never seen such fireworks before", neither is French: "Jamais elle n’avait vu un pareil feu d’artifice".

"… Masten knak midt over, ligesom den var et Rør…" (lit. the mast broke in the middle as if it were a reed); in English: "the mainmast snapped asunder like a reed"; in French:: "le mât se brisa comme un jonc"; the French seems simpler, but "in the middle" is missing, hence Uropi: "de mast vidì breken be mid wim u rosk" (the mast was broken in the middle like a reed); here again the passive is used: "vidì breken" because the mast is broken by the storm, it does not break byitself.

"… og Skibet slængrede paa Siden…", (lit. the ship threw itself on the side) in English "the ship lay over on her side", in French "le vaisseau se pencha d’un côté" (the ship leaned on a side), which corresponds to Uropi: "de nav klinì su zat".

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Koblèns, Doskia

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Another example is

Proverbs

Most European languages have equivalent proverbs which may be very similar to each other.

Let us take for example: "One swallow doesn't make a summer":

F. Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps

It. Una rondina non fa primavera

E . One swallow doesn’t make a summer

D. Eine Schwalbe macht doch keinen Sommer

Sp. Una golondrina no hace el verano

Nl. Een zwaluw maakt nog geen zomer

Da. Én svale gør ingen sommer

Sw. En svale gör ingen sommar

Gr. Ένας κούκκος δεν φέρνει την άνοιξη

Ru. Одна ласточка весны не делает

Li: Viena kreždė dar ne pavasaris

Cr. Jedna laska ne čini proleće

We have "swallow" in 11 proverbs out of 12 as against one "cuckoo" in Greek, and 6 "springs" as against 6 "summers" (northern countries + Spain), hence in Uropi: "U calovel det ne verna", that is exactly the French, Italian or Russian proverbs.

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On the other hand, if we take the French proverb: "Les chats ne font pas des chiens" (Cats don't give birth to dogs), we have:

F. Les chats ne font pas des chiens

It. Buon sangue non mente

E. He's a chip of the old block

D. Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Baum

Sp. De tal palo tal astilla

Nl. De appel vallt niet ver van de boom

Da. Æblet falder ikke langt fra stammen

Sw. Äpplet faller inte långt från trädet

Gr. Το μήλο κάτω άπο τη μήλια θα πέθει

Cz. Jablko nepadá daleko od stromu.

Ru. Яблоко от яблони недалеко падает

Li. Obuolys nuo obels netoli krinta

In 8 cases out of 12 (Germanic and Slavic languages), we have "the apple does not fall far away from the (apple) tree", which gives the Uropi proverb: "De apel fal ne dal od de drev". Romance languages on the contrary have different proverbs: "Good blood does not lie" in Italian, "From such a stick, such a splinter" in Spanish.

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For the proverb "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush", we find birds in nearly all proverbs:

F. Un bon tiens vaut mieux que deux tu l'auras

It. Meglio l’uovo oggi che la gallina domani

E. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

D. Ein Sperling in der Hand ist besser als eine Taube auf dem Dach

Cat. Val més ocell en mà que cent volant

Val més un "té" que dos "et daré"

Sp. Más vale un pájaro en mano que cien volando

Nl. Beter één vogel in de hand, dan tien in de lucht

Da. En fugl i hånden er bedre end ti på taget

Sw. Bättre en fågel i handen än tio i skogen

Cr. Bolje vrabac u ruci nego golub na grani

Gr. Κάλλιο πέντε και στο χέρι παρά δέκα και καρτέρει

Κάλλιο ζωντανό σκυλί παρά ψόφιο λιοντάρι

Ru. Не сули журавля в небе, а дай синицу в руки

Ближняя копеечка дороже дальнего рубля.

Cz. Lepší vrabec v hrsti nežli holub na střeše

L. Melius est canis vivus leone mortuo

In Spanish "A bird in hand is worth more than a hundred flying"; this figure which is the same in Catalan, is reduced to 10 in Dutch, Danish and Swedish, and to 2 in English. Those "hypothetical" birds can be found "in the air, on roofs, in bushes"; in other languages the difference is between small birds and large birds: "a sparrow and a pigeon" in German, Czech and Croatian, "a titmouse and a crane" in Russian. In Greek and Latin, we have "a living dog is better than a dead lion". Uropi sides with the majority: "Bunes un ovel in mand te des flevan" "Better a bird in hand than ten flying".